How African newsrooms are using AI to analyse data and produce good journalism

Catherine Gicheru gives a presentation at an IMS sponsored workshop on AI in newsrooms in Nairobi, Kenya, November 2022.

Newsrooms in Africa are incorporating AI into their media production processes, including news gathering, information analysis and understanding audiences. When used ethically and wisely, AI is a tool that can help journalists tap into growing quantities of digital data for storytelling.

30 Nov. 2022

“How would you explain artificial intelligence (AI) to your grandmother?” veteran editor and digital strategist Catherine Gicheru asked journalists and researchers who met recently in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to examine the use of AI by media around Africa.

The hesitant responses to Gicheru’s question reflected a lack of clarity about AI that pervades media the world over. But, as the IMS-sponsored workshop in Nairobi on 14–15 November went on to demonstrate, the use of AI is increasingly widespread in African news organisations. When used ethically and wisely, AI is an indispensable tool for the continent’s journalists and other media workers wishing to tap into growing quantities of digital data for storytelling and engaging with their audiences.

“People are not sure what AI actually is, and we need to explain the technology in a more straightforward way,” said Ayaan Khalif, Co-founder and Project Manager of Digital Shelter in Somalia. “AI is a simplifier tool. When washing machines came along, I don’t remember people freaking out and saying ‘they (washing machines) are taking our jobs!’ AI is a similar thing – it makes us work a bit faster and with more accuracy.”

AI “has the ability to see through the clouds”, says Harvey Binamu, Technology Officer for Zimbabwe’s Magamba Network. “You can sit with a document cache of millions and millions of records but the ability to sift through it and actually see where the story is, and to point out what they’re trying to bury, that’s telling truth to power.”

Organised by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and IMS, the Nairobi workshop also discussed initial findings from a study led by UCLAN’s Dr George Ogola to better understand the current state of AI use in African newsrooms, and to explore AI’s potential in strengthening public interest media in the region. IMS commissioned a similar study for Latin America and central-eastern Europe in 2021.

The latest study, said Dr Ogola, examines how AI is changing everyday newsroom practices across Africa: what the professional and ethical issues around AI-driven automation processes are, and what the prevailing implications for AI-powered automation are in a region that is so unequal in terms of resources, access, digital literacy and other divides.

Professor Charlie Beckett, Director of the London School of Economics’ Polis thinktank and its JournalismAI project, told the Nairobi workshop that AI’s added value to journalism will depend on journalists’ human touch – their creativity and the empathy they have with their audiences. AI, he said, can be part of the whole media production process: from news gathering, analysing information, and even story writing through to understanding audiences’ needs and how they consume news. “Where there’s lots of data, there are opportunities for using AI,” he said.

Many African media are just beginning to explore this potential. “So far we use AI mostly to understand our audience, especially on social media, using the tools that are already provided by some of these social media companies,” said Tony Kirita, Managing Editor of The Chanzo in Tanzania. “But tools that use AI are also helping us to write good articles…AI is something we already use daily and something we’re going to continue to use, and once you have that in mind then it’s easy to explore the tools that are already available and to use them to make your reports better.”

However, the workshop heard that some off-the-shelf AI tools struggle to recognise African languages and African people because these technologies have been “taught” with data from other parts of the world by programmers with inherent cultural biases.

Media’s adoption of any technology was not just a matter of resources, said Dr Ogola. “It also cultural, it’s about business models and it’s about audiences.” This has implications for how the media manage data, he said, “and how we as African societies manage the algorithms that process this data”. Given the cost, African media would be wise to collaborate in developing appropriate AI solutions, he added.

A visit to the newsroom of the Nation Media Group in downtown Nairobi highlighted the extent to which digital data is driving editorial decisions in many newsrooms today. Big screens at the centre of the newsroom display how individual stories are performing online in terms of clicks, likes, shares and the time audience members spend reading each article, prompting some workshop participants to wonder where the quality of journalism came into the equation.

Until now, research has focussed on understanding how AI is being used. “Next we need to understand its impact,” said Professor Admire Mare from South Africa’s University of Johannesburg. “There’s a huge gap in understanding how the technology is impacting on the quality of journalism.”

“Before the workshop, I didn’t know if AI could play a good role in journalism,” said Leyla Mohamed, Editor of Radio Ergo, IMS’ humanitarian news service for the Somali region. “But it can help us identify the useful information we need on social media, for example. It could save us more time so that we improve our work. That’s one of the main opportunities that AI brings to the newsroom I work in now. A challenge is that people could put that information wrongly and people won’t get the correct information. Therefore, journalists still need to check the information we use.”

Factchecking and media monitoring services are also applying AI because of the quantity of data involved. “We have been working for the past seven years to automate our media monitoring system – data capturing, data processing and searching for what we need within the data we collect about media content,” said Farisai Chaniwa, Director of Media Monitors Zimbabwe. The next step, she said, was to develop AI tools that would help MMZ to monitor social media and to convert radio reports into easier-to-analyse text. But even data-heavy and often laborious tasks cannot be left to AI alone. “Factchecking requires you to understand the nuance of the information you are checking,” said Africa Check’s Kenya Editor Alphonce Shiundu. And, like creativity and empathy, understanding nuance favours human intellect.

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill sparks spike in “legally sanctioned” extortion

BY OHOTUOWO OGBECHE
NOVEMBER 29, 2022


Since the law was proposed, instances of violence – including seemingly organised crime – against Ghana’s queer community have increased.

Dyed clothes dry on the rail tracks in Accra, Ghana. Credit: IMF Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds.

Last year, Ghana’s parliament introduced a controversial new anti-LGBTQ bill that could further criminalise same-sex acts and identities. Although homosexuality was initially outlawed under colonial rule – as in many African countries – and then in Ghana’s 1960 Criminal Offences Act, the new bill could significantly increase penalties and offences.

If passed, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill would introduce jail terms of up to 5 years for same-sex intercourse, up to 10 years for anyone “promoting” LGBTQ activities, and up to 1 year for a same-sex “public show of amorous relations”. Among other things, the law would also forcibly disband all LGBTQ organisations, ban trans healthcare, and prohibit adoption by same-sex couples.

Although it has not yet been signed into law, the anti-LGBTQ bill has already affected the lives of Ghana’s queer communities. A report this year by Outright International found a surge of violence against LGBTQ individuals. Of the 44 queer Ghanaians interviewed in the research, including paralegals and activists, every single one said they knew someone who had suffered some form of harassment or discrimination. These included sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions, beatings, mob attacks, evictions, and forced conversion practices.

Particularly worryingly, the report also found a sharp increase in targeted attacks in the form of blackmail and extortion. Several interviewees reported having been blackmailed and extorted, some more than once.

Donald*, a paralegal based in Accra, for instance, explained that the Grindr app has become a hub for blackmailers in Ghana; “they meet you on Grindr, take your phone, harass you, blackmail you,” he said. Osei, a trans woman, said she was extorted by someone she was considering dating; “he asked me to give him money, and when I refused, he threatened me that he would tell people that I am queer”, she said. Solomon, a transgender woman, was extorted by a man she met on Grindr; he took her money and phone and said he would take her to some priests to “pray for me so I can stop”.

Some criminals are even more emboldened and organised. Mark, an LGBTQ rights activist, received a call from someone saying they had been the victim of violence. When he went to meet the caller, seven men accosted him. They beat him up, took him to a house, stripped him naked, and took pictures and videos of him. The gang demanded GH₵5,000 ($345) from him, but after pleading, they settled for GH₵4,000 ($275). Mark paid them from his mobile money wallet after borrowing some money from a friend.

“They had a knife pointed at me and threatened to kill and bury me in the house, and no one would know,” he said. After releasing him, the men then demanded money from Mark’s phone contacts. “They said they would use those videos as evidence against me if I reported them,” he added. Mark believes the gang had undergone training to target and attack LGBTQ persons.

This trend of organised crime following the introduction of the anti-LGBTQ bill in Ghana should come as little surprise. In Nigeria, the prevalent crime of “kito” – in which predators target and extort queer people usually through dating apps – increased following the introduction of an anti-LGBTQ law in 2014, according to research by The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS). Perpetrators reportedly regard their crimes as “legally sanctioned” by that bill. It is certainly the case that victims struggle to get justice as they fear reporting violations due to law enforcement’s institutionalised homophobia and transphobia, and for fear of being further targeted by police themselves.

In Ghana, crimes against queer people have already increased despite the anti-LGBTQ bill not being passed yet. The Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has held public hearings on the proposed law but has not yet presented its report. The chair and deputy ranking member of the committee – MPs Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi and Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, respectively – declined to respond to African Arguments’ questions on the link between the proposed law and rising violence against queer Ghanaians.

When the bill does reach its second reading in Parliament, there is still hope that it might be scrapped. However, as we have seen from Ghana’s experience in the past year, even the possibility of further criminalising queer activities can be seen as sanctioning discrimination, abuse, and crimes against LGBTQ people.

*names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identities


Ohotuowo Ogbeche is a researcher with OutRight Action International.

On blackqueer Fugitivity beyond the Nation-State

BY E.N MIREMBE
NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Debating Ideas aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

Credit: Guest editor Rosebell Kagumire’s personal collection

‘Too much has been made of origins. All origins are arbitrary. This is not to say that they are not also nurturing, but they are essentially coercive and indifferent. Country, nation, these concepts are of course deeply indebted to origins, family, tradition, home. Nation-states are configurations of origins as exclusionary power structures which have legitimacy based solely on conquest and acquisition.’

A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging,

Dionne Brand

Dear Shawn,

I started writing this letter after coming across a Mail & Guardian headline that read, ‘Meet Uganda’s first transgender citizen’. Cleopatra Kambugu got her national identity card. Not dead-named, not misgendered. You and I know the hoops anyone has to jump through to simply get that piece of plastic. Imagine having to get one as a trans person. But she managed and I was thinking about you while this story of Uganda’s first transgender citizen was shared.

You have one of these plastics that hold so much weight. Not dead-named, not misgendered. You’ve had it for a while. I bring this up to acknowledge that the language of ‘firsts’ is important to human rights activism and it does important work in highlighting certain issues, but also to point out that we have been subverting and using the inefficiencies of the government to make life possible for ourselves. That you have one is testament. It also articulates a sort of ‘shadow feminism’ that is nestled in unravelling the state logics from within. Jack Halberstam in The Queer Art of Failure defines shadow feminisms as taking the form not of becoming, being, and doing but of shady, murky modes of undoing, unbecoming, and violating. Whatever processes many like you have (un)done, violated and otherwise escaped a form of legibility to make sure you are navigating life with a government approved ID, that says you are who you say you are, has given you access to a citizenship that knows you by the name you call yourself. Does that, however, mean a recognition of your transness? Does that ensure at any point, after the recognition, it is afforded to the next trans person who so desires it?

What I am saying is freedom is not, cannot be, a mere ‘truth-telling about oneself’ because as Foucault in Wrong-Doing, Truth Telling explained, the kind of avowal this recognition demands ‘incites or reinforces a power relation that exerts itself on the one who avows.’ The declaration of transness, the recognition of it as such, especially in Uganda, in the neocolonial African state, is almost always a violent encounter to brush up against.

My preoccupation, as you know, is in the elsewhere: otherwise space that we have created outside of these encounters.

Kambugu’s story was picked up by a number of international media and on DW. Speaking of the importance of trans people being recognized, she says, ‘I exist. I’m here. This is what I look like. Can you plan for me? Can you account for me?’ There is, in Kambugu’squestions, an echo of Poetra Asantewa’s desire for ‘a love that has mapped out the possibilities of my existence and made room for each one of them’, which, she asserts, is a love her country cannot afford to give. The idea of a ‘transgender citizen’ is an oxymoron. One can have the documents, the government approved plastics but to be queer (really, to be Black) is to exist outside the bounds of citizenship. The logic of cartography – to confine, to define, to mark – is at odds with blackqueer fugitivity. In Stolen Life, Black studies scholar Fred Moten writes,

‘Fugitivity, then, is a desire for and a spirit of escape and transgression of the proper and the proposed. It’s a desire for the outside, for a playing or being outside, an outlaw edge proper to the now always already improper voice or instrument. This is to say that it moves outside the intentions of the one who speaks and writes, moving outside their own adherence to the law and to propriety.’

I use blackqueer, after Ashon Crawley, within ‘a Black feminist tradition of struggling to make sense of – by producing a fundamental critique against – the normative world, and it practices a restlessness of word and phrase that seeks ways of existence otherwise.’ To foreground a view of blackness and queerness as mutually constitutive. I use blackqueer because of its spatiotemporal capaciousness. The blackqueer makes space for the Kenyans trying to annul laws that outrightly criminalize their existence, for the Nigerians, the Senegalese, the Ghanaians … and what I am gesturing towards is a social world that extends beyond, that cannot and refuses to be written within the ideological fiction of the nation-state. I keep returning to the poet and scholar S. A. Smythe’s question, ‘Do we want the state to love us or do we want to be free? Is what we are fighting for conditional citizenship or are we making demands and laying the grounds for our own emancipation?’

The cartographic, and the demand to be legible within it, is a justification for sites of violence.

Listen, I finally saw the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar in person. Forty-nine-metre bronze statue that towers over the city. It’s majestic and makes for great Instagram #views especially with the lights at night. It captures what I am trying to relay so perfectly. A man holds a child on his shoulder with his other hand around the waist of the woman. I would go into Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State here to rant about this valorization of the nuclear family to the detriment of the community but I’ll just say, it’s so predictably heterosexual. The ‘best’ part of this is the flags of all African states at its feet. Unironically. I saw this and cackled. Nduko o’Matigere coined the term ‘Man-Africanism’ that writer Nanjala Nyabola describes in this way:


‘At the core of Man-Africanism is the idea that people means man: the black man is the natural leader of Africa. Independence is a masculinized discourse, and the liberation of men was to lead to the liberation of women, children, and the elderly. Like other trickle-down theories, this hasn’t been the case. Instead, the consolidation of power in the hands of privileged men has been at the expense of everyone else. But it has been so uncritically woven into intellectual discourse on African history that we have never had a discussion on the real-world impact of Man-Africanism on Africa.’

I am extending this to say that the politics of the nation is the politics of heterosexuality.

I wouldn’t write to you without gossip to share. You know, it’s recently been election season in Kenya. The other day N. (yes, our N.) was telling me they had to get a new cab driver because the one they’ve had for the longest time travelled to the village. He’s contesting for a council seat and guess what? The major blows to his campaign at the moment are that one, he is unmarried, and two, he is the child of a single mother (I hate the phrase ‘single mother’ as you might imagine). This is also why I don’t bother myself with elections anymore. We know the homophobic rhetoric we have to deal with in Uganda’s election cycles. Candidates routinely ‘accuse’ each other of being funded to support the gay agenda. Collateral damage.

Returning to Dionne Brand’s question – ‘What we have to ask ourselves is, as everyone else in the nation should ask themselves also, nation predicated on what?’ – the conception of the citizen in the neocolonial state that was created in the colonizer’s image is one predicated on cis heteronormativity.

I want to know what you think about all this in relation to yourself as ‘Ugandan’. I’m so firmly on the other end that rejects the idea but you usually balance out my views. You think more about the practicalities.

I have been listening to Obongjayar’s Some Nights I Dream of Doors on repeat and I have been trying to imagine blackqueer fugitivity beyond the nation-state, maps as beyond geography, geography as beyond places. Malala Andrialavidrazana’s Figures make me believe in this possibility of reconstruction, the way she works with maps. I could get you a print of her work for your house if I could. I wanted to write you about all this to say you represent, for me, possibility that is beyond state capture.

There’s third eyes to this letter, but it’s still to-for-about-you; blackqueer inventing life.

About the series
‘African Feminisms: A Constant Awakening’ is Debating Ideas’ latest series – co-edited by Rosebell Kagumire – examining social and feminist movements on the continent, the shifts and implications internally and externally. What is shaping the discourse around women’s and gender-diverse people’s issues and their rights? The series will investigate some of the most pertinent intersecting issues such as: understanding the division of theory, policy and practice; new age influences and what grounds them? These themes will be situated in larger continental debates of politics and human development as well as lessons from South-South collaboration in re-centring decolonization in the struggle for equality and freedom.


E.N Mirembe
Mirembe works with art as a curator, editor, writer and researcher. They are a Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa and University of the Western Cape Museum fellow. They were a 2021/2022 Center for Arts, Design and Social Research fellow. They have been a curator in residence at Bag Factory Artist Studios in Johannesburg and were also a curatorial fellow for the KLA ART 21 Festival, a contemporary visual arts festival in Kampala produced by 32° Degrees East | Ugandan Arts Trust. Mirembe is also a published writer whose work has been featured on Literary Hub, Africa is a Country, Johannesburg Review of Books, African Feminism, Africa In Words, and others.

French baguettes get UNESCO heritage status


"The baguette is flour, water, salt and yeast -- and the savoir-faire of the artisan."

Olga NEDBAEVA, Eric RANDOLPH
Wed, November 30, 2022 


The French baguette -- "250 grams of magic and perfection," in the words of President Emmanuel Macron, and one of the abiding symbols of the nation -- was given UNESCO heritage status on Wednesday.

The bread sticks, with their crusty exterior and soft middle, have remained a quintessential part of French life long after other stereotypes like berets and strings of garlic have fallen by the wayside.

The UN agency granted "intangible cultural heritage status" to the tradition of making the baguette and the lifestyle that surrounds them.

More than six billion are baked every year in France, according to the National Federation of French Bakeries -- but the UNESCO status comes at a challenging time for the industry.

France has been losing some 400 artisanal bakeries per year since 1970, from 55,000 (one per 790 residents) to 35,000 today (one per 2,000).

The decline is due to the spread of industrial bakeries and out-of-town supermarkets in rural areas, while urbanites increasingly opt for sourdough, and swap their ham baguettes for burgers.
- Honeycomb and cream -

Still, it remains an entirely common sight to see people with a couple of sticks under their arm, ritually chewing off the warm end as they leave the bakery, or "boulangerie".


There are national competitions, during which the candidates are sliced down the middle to allow judges to evaluate the regularity of their honeycomb texture as well as the the colour of the interior, which should be cream.

But despite being a seemingly immortal fixture in French life, the baguette only officially got its name in 1920, when a new law specified its minimum weight (80 grams) and maximum length (40 centimetres).

"Initially, the baguette was considered a luxury product. The working classes ate rustic breads that kept better," said Loic Bienassis, of the European Institute of Food History and Cultures, who helped prepare the UNESCO dossier.

"Then consumption became widespread, and the countryside was won over by baguettes in the 1960s and 70s," he said.

Its earlier history is rather uncertain.

Some say long loaves were already common in the 18th century; others that it took the introduction of steam ovens by Austrian baker August Zang in the 1830s for its modern incarnation to take shape.

One popular tale is that Napoleon ordered bread to be made in thin sticks that could be more easily carried by soldiers.


Another links baguettes to the construction of the Paris metro in the late 19th century, and the idea that baguettes were easier to tear up and share, avoiding arguments between the workers and the need for knives.

France submitted its request to UNESCO in early 2021, with baguettes chosen over the zinc roofs of Paris and a wine festival in Arbois.

"It is a recognition for the community of artisanal bakers and patisserie chefs," said Dominique Anract, president of bakeries federation in a statement.

"The baguette is flour, water, salt and yeast -- and the savoir-faire of the artisan."

neo-er/rox

Triple-Dip La Niña persists, prolonging drought and flooding


Published
30 November 2022

Press Release Number:
30/11/2022

Cooling impact is temporary and limited


Geneva, 30 November 2022 - The unusually stubborn and protracted La Niña event is likely to last until the end of the northern hemisphere winter/southern hemisphere summer. The first “triple-dip” La Niña (three consecutive years) of the 21st century will continue to affect temperature and precipitation patterns and exacerbate drought and flooding in different parts of the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The WMO El Niño/La Niña Update indicates about a 75% chance that La Niña will persist during December-February 2022/2023 and 60% chance during January-March 2023.

There is a 55% chance of ENSO-neutral conditions (neither El Niño or La Niña) emerging during February-April 2023, increasing to about 70% during March-May, according to the Update, which is based on input from experts and forecast models around the world.

It is only the third time since 1950 that there has been a triple-dip La Niña.

La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, namely winds, pressure and rainfall. It usually has the opposite impacts on weather and climate as El Niño, which is the warm phase of the so-called El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

La Niña is a natural phenomenon. But it is taking place against a background of human-induced climate change, which is increasing global temperatures, making our weather more extreme and affecting seasonal rainfall patterns.



Humanitarian crisis

“The tropical Pacific has been in a La Niña state, with short interruptions, since September 2020 – but this has only had a limited and temporary cooling impact on global temperatures,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas. “The past eight years are set to be the hottest on record and sea level rise and ocean warming has accelerated.”

Despite La Niña, both 2022 and 2021 were warmer than any year prior to 2015.

“This persistent La Niña event is prolonging drought and flood conditions in affected regions. The international community is especially concerned about the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe for millions of people in the Horn of Africa, driven by the longest and most severe drought in recent history,” said Prof. Taalas.

A multi-agency alert for the Horn of Africa recently warned that a 5th consecutive season of drought has been set in motion by a poor start to October – December rains. WMO was one of the contributors to the alert, which cautioned that below-average rainfall is also considered likely during the March–May 2023 rainy season.

Already, more than 20 million people are highly food insecure in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia and some parts of Somalia may face the risk of famine by the end of the year.

“WMO will continue to provide tailored information to the humanitarian sector and to support sensitive sectors like agriculture, food security, health and disaster risk reduction. WMO is also implementing a new action plan, presented at COP27, to ensure that everyone should have access to early warning systems in the next five years to protect them against hazards related to our weather, climate and water,” said Prof. Taalas.

Precipitation patterns in many regions this year have born the hallmarks of La Niña: drier than usual conditions in Patagonia in South America and southwest North America, as well as East Africa, according to WMO’s provisional State of the Global Climate 2022 report.

It has been wetter than usual in Southern Africa, northern South America, the maritime continent and eastern Australia. More intense and longer monsoon rainfall in southeast Asia is associated with La Niña. Thus, Pakistan experienced devastating rains in July and August.

Global Seasonal Climate outlook

El Niño and La Niña are major – but not the only - drivers of the Earth’s climate system.

In addition to the long-established ENSO Update, WMO now also issues regular Global Seasonal Climate Updates (GSCU), which incorporate influences of the other major climate drivers such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole.

The ENSO and Global Seasonal Climate Updates are based on forecasts from WMO Global Producing Centres of Long-Range Forecasts and are available to support governments, the United Nations, decision-makers and stakeholders in climate sensitive sectors to mobilize preparations and protect lives and livelihoods.

Despite the stubborn La Niña in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific, widespread warmer than-average sea-surface temperatures elsewhere are predicted to dominate the forecast of air temperatures for December to February 2022/2023. This will contribute to above normal temperatures over land areas in the Northern Hemisphere except for north-western North America. The largest increase in probabilities for above-normal temperatures are along the Arctic coast of Asia, northern parts of central America, the eastern Maritime Continent, and New Zealand.

Precipitation predictions for December to February are similar to typical rainfall effects of La Niña.

Probabilistic forecasts of surface air temperature and precipitation for the season December-February 2022-2023. The tercile category with the highest forecast probability is indicated by shaded areas. The most likely category for below-normal, above-normal and near-normal is depicted in blue, red and grey shadings respectively for temperature, and orange, green and grey shadings respectively for precipitation. White areas indicate equal chances for all categories in both cases. The baseline period is 1993–2009


The World Meteorological Organization is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice  on Weather, Climate and Water

Egyptians want the Rosetta Stone back

It helped decipher hieroglyphics, and now Egyptians want it back from the British Museum.

A close-up view of the cartouche of the Ptolemaic dynasty Pharaoh Ptolemy V "Epiphanes" inscribed with the rest of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic text in the upper portion of the Rosetta Stone, on display at the British Museum in London [File: Amir Makar/AFP]

Published On 30 Nov 2022

More countries are demanding the repatriation of their heritage from museums across Europe and North America.

And thousands of Egyptians are once again demanding the repatriation of the Rosetta Stone, one of the most important pieces in the British Museum

‘’The British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of Western cultural violence against Egypt,” said Monica Hanna, dean of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, and organiser of one of two petitions calling for the stone’s return.

The inscriptions on the dark grey granite slab, the text of a decree in three languages, were the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The “confiscation” of the Rosetta Stone came during imperial battles between Britain and France. After Napoleon Bonaparte’s military occupation of Egypt, French soldiers uncovered the stone in 1799 in the northern town of Rashid, known by the French as Rosetta.

In 1801, British forces defeated the French in Egypt, and the stone and more than a dozen other antiquities were taken by the British under the terms of the surrender deal. It has remained in the British Museum since.

Hanna’s petition, with 4,200 signatures, says the seizing of the stone was “an act of plunder” of a “spoil of war”. The claim is echoed in a petition by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister for antiquities affairs, which has more than 100,000 signatures. Both petitions argue that Egypt had no say in the 1801 agreement.

In a statement, the British Museum said the 1801 treaty included the signature of an Ottoman admiral who fought alongside the British against the French, arguing that he represented Egypt as the Ottoman sultan nominally ruled Egypt at the time of Napoleon’s invasion.

The Museum also said Egypt’s government has not submitted a request for its return and that there are 21 of 28 known copies of the engraved decree still in Egypt.

A breakthrough in understanding hieroglyphics

The original stone has unrivalled significance to Egyptology. Carved in the 2nd century BC, the slab contains three versions of a decree relating to a settlement between the then-ruling Ptolemies and a sect of Egyptian priests. The first is classic hieroglyphics, the next is a simplified hieroglyphic script known as demotic, and the third is in ancient Greek.

Through knowledge of the latter, academics were able to decipher the hieroglyphic symbols, with French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion eventually cracking the language in 1822.

The stone is one of more than 100,000 Egyptian and Sudanese relics taken to the British Museum. Many of them were taken during the time Britain colonised the two countries from 1883 to 1953.

More and more museums and collectors are returning artefacts to their country of origin, sometimes that is ordered by a court, while some cases are voluntary, presented as an act of atonement for historical wrongs.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum returned 16 antiquities to Egypt in September after an investigation in the United States concluded they had been illegally trafficked. On Monday, London’s Horniman Museum returned more than 72 objects, including 12 Benin Bronzes that were looted in 1897, to the Nigerian government.

Nicholas Donnell, a US-based lawyer specialising in cases concerning art and artefacts, said no international legal framework exists for such disputes. Unless there is evidence that an artefact was acquired outside what are considered acceptable channels, repatriation is left largely to the museum’s discretion.

‘‘Given the treaty and the timeframe, the Rosetta Stone is a hard legal battle to win,’’ said Donnell.

The British Museum has acknowledged that several repatriation requests have been made to it from various countries for artefacts, but it did not provide The Associated Press with any details on their status or number. It also did not confirm whether it has ever repatriated an artefact from its collection.

For Nigel Hetherington, an archaeologist and CEO of the online academic forum Past Preserves, the museum’s lack of transparency suggests other motives.

‘‘It’s about money, maintaining relevance and a fear that in returning certain items people will stop coming,’’ he said.

Egyptian demands

Western museums have long tried to justify their holding of world heritage treasures by claiming superior facilities and larger crowd draws.

For Hanna, Egyptians’ right to access their own history is the priority. “How many Egyptians can travel to London or New York?” she said.

Amid turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypt saw an uptick in artefact smuggling, which cost the country an estimated $3bn between 2011 and 2013, according to the US-based Antiquities Coalition.

But President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government has since invested heavily in its antiquities. Egypt has successfully reclaimed thousands of internationally smuggled artefacts and plans to open a newly built, state-of-the-art museum where tens of thousands of objects can be housed.

Egypt’s plethora of ancient monuments, from the Pyramids of Giza to the towering statues of Abu Simbel near the border with Sudan, are the magnet for a tourism industry that drew in $13bn in 2021.

Egyptian authorities did not respond to a request for comment regarding Egypt’s policy towards the Rosetta Stone or other Egyptian artefacts displayed abroad. Hawass and Hanna said they are not pinning hopes on the government.

‘‘The Rosetta Stone is the icon of Egyptian identity,’’ said Hawass. ‘‘I will use the media and the intellectuals to tell the (British) museum they have no right.’’

SOURCE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Students unearth 3000-year-old scarab near Tel Aviv

“At first, I thought it was a toy lying in the dirt," says Gilad Stern. "It was a scarab seal - every archaeology-lover’s dream!”

Israel National News
Nov 30, 2022,

The scarab  צילום: גלעד שטרן - רשות העתיקות

An ancient 3000-year-old scarab was a surprise discovery in a school field tour in Azor, located about 7 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel. The scene depicted on the scarab probably represents the bestowing of legitimacy on a local ruler.

“We were wandering around, when I saw something that looked like a small toy on the ground,” said Gilad Stern of the Israel Antiquity Authority Educational Center, who was leading the tour. “An inner voice said to me: ‘Pick it up and turn it over.’ I was astonished: it was a scarab with a clearly incised scene, the dream of every amateur archaeologist. The pupils were really excited!”

The tour of the eighth-grade pupils from the Rabin Middle School, took place in the context of a Tour-Guide Course organized by the Israel Antiquity Authority for the third year running. The course enables the pupils to teach the local Azor residents about their local archaeological heritage.

The scarab was designed in the shape of the common dung beetle. The ancient Egyptians saw in the act of the little beetle, which rolls a ball of dung twice its size where it stows its future offspring as the embodiment of creation and regeneration - similar to the act of the Creator God.


According to Dr. Amir Golani, Israel Antiquities Authority specialist of the Bronze Age period, "The scarab was used as a seal and was a symbol of power and status. It may have been placed on a necklace or a ring. It is made of faience, a silicate material coated with a bluish-green glaze. It may have dropped from the hands of an important and figure of authority who passed through the area, or it may have been deliberately buried in the ground along with other objects, and after thousands of years it came to the surface. It's difficult to determine the exact original context.

"In the lower, flat part of the scarab seal, a figure is depicted sitting on a chair, and in front of it is a standing figure, whose arm is raised above that of the seated person. The standing figure has an elongated head, which appears to represent the crown of an Egyptian pharaoh, and it is possible that we can see here a snapshot of a scene wherein the Egyptian Pharaoh is conferring authority to a local Canaanite subject.

"This scene basically reflects the geopolitical reality that prevailed in the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1000 BCE), when the local Canaanite rulers lived (and sometimes rebelled) under Egyptian political and cultural hegemony," says Dr. Golani. "Therefore, it is very possible that the seal is indeed from the Late Bronze Age, when the local Canaanites were ruled by the Egyptian Empire.

Scarab seals are indeed distinctly Egyptian, but their wide distribution also reached far outside the borders of Egypt.

Hundreds of scarabs were discovered in the Land of Israel, mainly in graves, but also in settlement layers.

Some of them were imported from Egypt, many more were imitated in Israel by local artisans under Egyptian influence.

The level of workmanship of the particular scarab found now is not typical for Egypt and may represent a product of local craftsmen.

The close cooperation between the Israel Antiquity Authority and the Azor Municipality and its educational department and schools, led to the recent opening of an impressive local museum, exhibiting the archaeological story of Azor.

According to Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquity Authority, “The find of the scarab in the framework of a field tour with pupils participating in the Tour-Guide course, is symbolic, in that the pupils were gaining archaeological knowledge, and at the same time contributing to our archaeological heritage. This cooperation is truly moving, as we are working towards connecting communities with their cultural heritage.”

Cape Verde: Researchers find coral reef in Santiago, call for its preservation

SUSANNAH IRELAND/AFP or licensors
By Rédaction Africanews

A coral field has been discovered in Moiá-Moiá beach, in the eastern part of Cape Verde

an island of Santiago. The scientific name of the hard coral found is "Sidastrea radians".

It's an area of about 1.000 square meters, with a very rich biodiversity due to the strong sea currents. They constantly renew the water, bringing fish and eliminating potential pollution.

The discoverer is Wlodzimierz Szymaniak, a Pole who has lived in Cape Verde for many years. He's a professor at the Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde and an avid diver.

For this project, he worked in partnership with the Cape-Verdean Ecotourism Association (ECOCV)*, which considers the discovery one of the "most remarkable" this year.

The researcher found Moiá-Moiá bay through old books. They talked about the bay because it was once very dangerous for ships. There's actually still a ship hull in Moiá-Moiá. The Pentalina B ship ran aground in the bay in June 2014 and its hull is still in place.

"Nowadays this area is almost completely forgotten and degraded by illegal sand mining", stated Szymaniak.

Edita Magileviciut, vice-president of ECOCV and also a marine biologist, listed the next steps to be taken: "investigate more, identify the severity of the impacts, such as pollution and sand extraction in the coastal area, the impact of these algae** and make a specific mapping of these corals and other associated species".

The biologist warned about the sensitivity of this habitat and stressed: "we have to educate the peoples, raise awareness, increase conservation activities. Otherwise we will lose [the coral] without discovering."

"All the species in the sea, as on land, are connected. And even the human beings. If we lose coral, we lose breeding grounds for commercially important fish, endemic fish, and all that. So, by protecting a coral species, we protect the ecosystem", she said.

Xi sends congratulations to UN meeting marking Int'l Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People

(Xinhua) 13:18, November 30, 2022

BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping extended congratulations to a UN meeting held on Tuesday to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

In his message, Xi said the Palestinian issue is at the core of the Middle East issue, and a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue bears on regional peace and stability as well as international fairness and justice.

The peaceful coexistence between Palestine and Israel, and the joint development of the Arab and the Jewish nations are in the long-term interests of both sides and stand as a common aspiration of people of all countries, Xi said.

The international community should adhere to the two-state solution, prioritize the Palestinian issue on the international agenda, and help the Palestinian people realize their dream of an independent state at an early date, he said.

Xi emphasized that China consistently and firmly supports the Palestinian people's just cause of restoring their legitimate national rights, actively promotes peace talks and promotes peace between Palestine and Israel.

Saying that China supports the strengthening of the authority of the Palestinian National Authority and the enhancement of unity among all parties in Palestine, Xi expressed the hope that Palestine and Israel could resume peace talks as soon as possible so as to bring the peace process in the Middle East back on track.

Xi said China will, as always, provide humanitarian and development assistance to the Palestinian side, support its capacity building and help Palestine develop its economy and improve people's livelihood.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China will continue to work with the international community to make positive contributions to the lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity in the Middle East, Xi added.

No evidence that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons

TEHRAN, Nov. 30 (MNA) – There is no evidence that Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons, 

reviewing its participation in the NPT, Vladimir Yermakov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's 

Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department said.

"Iran has been and remains a conscientious participant in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The conclusion of the JCPOA in 2015 helped to finally and irrevocably remove all the questions that the [International Atomic Energy Agency] had to Tehran at that time," he told Sputnik.

"After that, for several years Iran remained the most verified state among agency members. No deviations from its obligations were identified," Yermakov said. "There is no evidence that would indicate Tehran's intention to ever reconsider its participation in the NPT and start developing a nuclear explosive device."

Although the International Atomic Energy Agency has shown in numerous reports that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, the American and Zionist leaders claim that Iran's nuclear program is moving towards the production of nuclear weapons.

Tehran stresses that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and there is a Fatwa by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran which bans any possession and use of weapons of mass destruction.

RHM/PR/5643505

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